Perpendicular magnetic recording write head with notched trailing shield and method for making

Abstract

A perpendicular magnetic recording write head has a write pole, a trapezoidal-shaped trailing shield notch, and a gap between the write pole and notch, with the gap being formed of a nonmagnetic mask film, such as alumina, a nonmagnetic metal protective film and a nonmagnetic gap layer. The write pole has a trailing edge that has a width substantially defining the track width and that faces the front edge of the notch but is spaced from it by the gap. The write pole has nonmagnetic filler material, such as alumina, surrounding it except at its trailing edge, where it is in contact with the gap. A reactive ion beam etching (RIBE) process removes the filler material at the side edges of the write pole and thus widens the opening at the side edges. The nonmagnetic metal film protects the underlying mask film and write pole during the widening of the opening. The gap layer and trailing shield notch are deposited into a widened opening above the write pole, so the sides of the notch diverge to cause the generally trapezoidal shape.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 11 / 379,969 filed Apr. 24, 2006.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]This invention relates generally to perpendicular magnetic recording write heads, and more particularly to a write head with a notched trailing shield for use in magnetic recording hard disk drives.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]Perpendicular magnetic recording, wherein the recorded bits are stored in a perpendicular or out-of-plane orientation in the recording layer, is a promising path toward ultra-high recording densities in magnetic recording hard disk drives. As shown in FIG. 1A, a “dual-layer” medium includes a perpendicular magnetic data recording layer (RL) on a “soft” or relatively low-coercivity magnetically permeable underlayer (SUL) formed on the disk substrate. This type of medium is shown with a single write pole (WP) type of recording head. A thin film coil (C) is shown ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]The invention is a perpendicular magnetic recording write head with a write pole, a trapezoidal-shaped trailing shield notch, and a gap between the write pole and notch, with the gap being formed of a nonmagnetic mask film, such as alumina, a nonmagnetic metal protective film and a nonmagnetic gap layer. The write pole has a trailing edge that has a width substantially defining the track width and that faces the front edge of the notch but is spaced from it by the gap. The gap layer and trailing shield notch are deposited into a widened opening above the write pole, so the sides of the notch diverge to cause the generally trapezoidal shape, with the notch back edge being substantially wider than the notch front edge, and thus wider than the track width. The write pole has nonmagnetic filler material, such as alumina, surrounding it except at its trailing edge, where it is in contact with the gap. The material of the gap layer is different from the surrounding filler material. The write head is fabricated by a process than includes reactive ion beam etching (RIBE) to remove the filler material at the side edges of the write pole and thus widen the opening at the side edges. The nonmagnetic metal film overlying the mask film, which overlies the trailing edge of the write pole, has substantially reduced sensitivity to the RIBE than the filler material, and thus protects the underlying mask film and write pole during the widening of the opening. This assures greater uniformity in trailing shield gap thicknesses for all of the heads formed on the wafer. After the gap layer and material of the trailing shield are deposited into the widened opening, the result is that the notch has a generally trapezoidal shape and is wider than the write pole. This reduces saturation of the notch during writing.

Problems solved by technology

One of the problems associated with the write head shown in FIG. 3 is that the generally rectangularly shaped TSN can become saturated during writing.

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